"Sicilian tempers run legendarily high, but inhabitants of the Italian island—and their descendants—have a matching appetite for fun. Even a downpour couldn’t have dampened this sextet’s raucous energy.” Alex Varty, Georgia Straight (Vancouver Jazz Festival review)

“Michael Occhipinti’s miraculous sounding guitar, Don Byron’s warm and woody clarinet, and the magnificent voices of the ineffable Dominic Mancuso and the divine Pilar. No pomp; no circumstance; just wonderfully and magically made music.” JazzdaGama

Welcome to the home of Michael Occhipinti, guitarist, composer, and leader of numerous projects including The Sicilian Project, Shine On: The Universe Of John Lennon, In Orbit (featuring Jeff Coffin & Felix Pastorius), The Triodes, and NOJO (Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra). Moving between the worlds of Jazz, World Music, Funk, and Chamber Music, and performing everywhere from major festivals to your living room, please click on the various pages to discover Michael Occhipinti's many musical identities.

In the guitar warmups section, I've added downloadable files. You can see some of the exercises as photos (and print that way) but you can also download the pdfs. Enjoy! If you think I've made your playing move down the highway in any good way, please consider supporting my music!

Hey musicians who aren't done learning about music (which is basically all of us), I'm taking on new private students. Guitar, composition, group coaching, arranging, pasta making, I enjoy it all so send me a message if you're interested!

I've set myself the goal of uploading a new guitar warmup every day, starting March 1, 2016. I'm always trying to come up with warmups for my guitar students to both get to know their fretboard better, and also to improve their reading and knowledge of scales and intervals. Non-guitarists are of course welcome to do these too (I've heard from a flute playing friend that he really liked the 5ths over the Cycle of 5ths one). Hope you like them!

Toronto's Jazz FM is presenting the Sicilian Project as part of their Sound Of Jazz Series at the Old Mill on Monday February 1st. It's a unique chance to catch the band performing music off the new album Muorica in the 7-piece configuration that is at the core of much of the record. All the key musicians who make up the band will be there:

Dominic Mancuso - vocals, Roberto Occhipinti - bass, Mark Kelso - drums, Louis Simao - accordion, Ernie Tollar - saxophone/flute, Kevin Turcotte - trumpet, and of course your truly on guitar. This is the band's first Canadian performance since returning from Sicily in the autumn and likely the last show before the summer festival season kicks in. Tickets are available through the Jazz FM website at http://www.jazz.fm/index.php/news-a-events-mainmenu/sound-of-jazz/soj-series/12855-soj-series